Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

It's hard to take politicians seriously when they start calling each other liars. Mr. Easter implies that Harper spent millions on ads here on PEI and that the majority of us bought into it but I'm thinking that most of us just downright find it hard to understand how the "green shift" effects our pocket books. Most people don't believe that if you pay a tax that at some point you're going to get more back. This is the serious flaw in Dion's plan and as good as it may be unfortunately it's a hard sell here on PEI and I suspect elsewhere.P.E.I. really down on green shift: pollWAYNE THIBODEAUThe GuardianThere is less support for the Liberal party’s green shift plan in Prince Edward Island than any other province in Atlantic Canada, according to a Corporate Research Associates poll. Pollsters asked 1,507 Atlantic Canadians if they were in favour or opposed to the plan.Only 22 per cent of Islanders said they were in favour of green shift, the lowest in the region. About 26 per cent of Atlantic Canadians support the plan. Meanwhile, 49 per cent of Islanders are against it. That’s tied with New Brunswick for the highest level of opposition in the region. It’s also higher than the regional average.About 43 per cent of Atlantic Canadians were against green shift. Don Mills, president of Corporate Research Associates, says the Conservatives have thus far successfully defined the Liberals’ green shift plan as another level of taxation. “I’m not saying this is a bad plan, personally, by any means,” Mills told The Guardian. “But the Liberals have done a horrid job at trying to educate people to what the policy is all about.” The Liberals’ problem, said Mills, is one of credibility. “They keep saying ‘we’ll raise your taxes over here, but we’re going to lower them over there and everything is going to be fine.’ There’s not many people who will buy that argument from a politician.” Timing is also bad for the Liberals, as they party tries to sell a plan that’s going to raise the price of diesel and home heating oil when both are already at record prices. The Liberals maintain that there will be millions of dollars in tax cuts to offset those increases. “We just had a big bump up in energy prices and now you want to talk about adding more on to that at this moment - not good timing for the Liberals, obviously.” Malpeque MP Wayne Easter says green shift is a package of tax reductions. He said the problem is the Liberals have to do a better job of selling its plan, which he said will put more money into the pockets of Islanders — not less. “Keep in mind the Conservatives spent millions of dollars of their own party money on ads over the summer. They spent probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers’ money with those papers coming into everybody’s kitchen lying about the program, lying about what green shift is,” said Easter. “Canadians and Prince Edward Islanders have been misled by Stephen Harper and his Harperites. The Corporate Research Associates poll of 1,507 residents was conducted Aug. 5-28. It is considered accurate within plus or minus 2.5 per cent 95 times out of 100.